New York: Mayor Bloomberg hands out $2.4 million in bonuses

[Hannah Bell]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has rewarded his top aides with a combined total of $2.4 million in bonuses for their work on his reelection campaign, according to a recent New York Times report.

Among those receiving bonuses was Patricia E. Harris, the first deputy mayor and reportedly Bloomberg’s most trusted aid. She received a total of $451,000 including a $400,000 bonus for less than two months “work” on Bloomberg’s recent campaign for reelection...

The case of Patricia E. Harris, where the bonus essentially erases any line between a public official and the billionaire mayor’s personal employee, has caused particular controversy within New York’s political establishment. Underlying the stated concern is fear such open cronyism may generate opposition from working-class New Yorkers, who are bearing the brunt of Wall Street’s crisis.

The Times noted, “Ms. Harris’s pay raised the most questions, government watchdog groups said, because it amounted to a second salary for her work at City Hall, given her blink-and-you-miss-it stint on the campaign trail. The groups called the lavish pay package an alarming back-door raise for a government employee who already earns $245,760 a year in her day job as first deputy mayor. Ms. Harris was on the campaign payroll for just 55 days, from Sept. 21 to Nov. 15, meaning that she was paid $8,200 a day, assuming that she worked weekends and holidays.”

Indeed, the manner in which Bloomberg has managed to essentially purchase the support of various layers of the political establishment in New York City, ranging from political parties, to advocacy groups and government employees, illustrates the workings of the modern-day oligarchy. In the run up to the election, Bloomberg bought off community and religious groups, as well as other politically connected organizations. He also purchased the services of leading Democratic advisors to run his campaign against his Democratic challenger, William Thompson, who was the city’s comptroller.

Bloomberg embodies the super rich who rule openly with no regard for how their policies are perceived by ordinary working people. They buy up offices through which they can ruthlessly defend the interests of their class of billionaires at the expense of the working class.

Last year saw a record number of individuals and families sleeping in the city’s homeless shelters, while thousands of multi-million dollar luxury units remain vacant. Bloomberg hasn’t enacted a single policy to assist workers and their families, while adding billions to his own personal fortune and enriching a handful of his cronies in the process...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/bloo-j22.shtml